Alright, as promised, here’s the pics

Here’s Rachel

And here’s James being silly

Isaac and Obadiah

And the best for last!

Lydia was cute in her outfit

Take a look! Concertina Accordion. It’s way cool

It has a button stuck, and a few straps broken, but it does work, and it’s gonna be a great project

It’s hard to believe it’s been two days already! Time sure flies. I’m going to be talking about the day before yesterday in this post. It might be a bit long so, brace yourself!

7:30 AM
“Benjamin, time to wake up!” said Mary. “Okay…” I grunted, and then fell back to sleep.

8:15 AM
“Benjamin! Wake up! It’s almost time to go!!” yelled Rebecca. “Okay, Okay, I’ll be down in a bit!” And I woke up, slowly. By the time I had fully gotten out of bed, got dressed etc. Rebecca came up and said “Luke’s going to come and get you before 9.” “Okay” I replied.

So I went downstairs and checked the furnace, then came upstairs, and got my “fancy duds” on. I was to be the “Paparazzi” at the Ladies Of The Lord, Victorian Tea. I know, every guy’s dream.

8:30 AM
Caleb arrives at our house. I had thought that Rebecca said Caleb was comming, not Luke! So, when he came by, I grabbed my coat, he grabbed a couple of things and we left.

Once we got to the tea, Not many people were there, because it was going to start at 9. So, I took off my coat, and revealed, my fancy duds. Surprisingly enough, Zeke was wearing the same kind of clothes! White shirt, green vest.

9:00 AM
People started arriving. There were a few boys at this ladies tea(in case you hadn’t noticed!). There was, Me, James, Caleb, Zeke and a few other ladies brougth their babies, so there was a few little boys. Barbara got there, and showed me a hat! It fit well with my paparazzi suit, so I put it on! Actually the hat was to go with an act at the tea, so I had to give it up later on.

There were some important roles in this tea, so I will disclose them here: I was the paparazzi, Caleb was the soldier in the armor of God, James was playing Jesus in the play, Ronda wore the tattered garments in the play, Barbara was heaviness, and I forget who the other lady was, but she played the old man. Mom did a little puppet act, and there were a few singers, as well as speakers.

Overall it was a pretty good tea. Went off without a hitch. They had good food there too!

Mom did a really good job of decorating the place.

9:30 AM
The play started. I played Jesus in this play once before, so it wasn’t really anything new. They all did a pretty good job though. I forget the one lady’s name who did “a perfect tree” but, she did a good job. Madison(I think that was her name) did a couple specials with Mom. Mary and Rebecca both did some songs, and Trudy did the main message.

11:00 AM
I got tired of my fancyt duds. underneat I had my regular T-shirt, so I took off the shirt, and vest, and took a few pictures in my regular clothes. Then people started leaving, and the girls and some of the other people all danced to the music Mom put on. Then, once everybody was gone, we all cleaned up.

Once we got the whole place cleaned up, we waited for somebody to come and get the “gates” and take them back to the petalers. When he finally came, we all left.

12:00 PM
We got home, and I put batteries in to the camera(they had run down). Soon we would head off to MAF to go on a flight(my first) over the Boise Valley! It was exciting. The people who went were: Me, Mary, Rachel and Sarah. Then the Christiansens came after a while. The people to ride would be: Me, Rachel, Sarah and Bonnie.

1:30 PM
Time for the flight! Oh, before I tell you about this, I’ll tell you something funny. When we first got out at MAF, we went inside, and talked to the lady at the front desk. Then somebody came by and said “Your lights are on!” MAry replied “Oh, it’s one of those cars that turns them off automatically.” Then the lady at the front desk answers the phone “Oh, they’ve already been informed.” Then she hung up and said “They were calling to tell you your lights were on!” LOL!

Okay, on to the flight. It was really cool. The Airplane was a Cessna. The pilot was a really nice guy, whom the girls had already met! He had lived in Africa for 15 years, and lived in lesotho for 13 of those! He was cool. He showed us how to do all the doors, and the seatbelts and such. The take-off was fun. It was really about how I had expected it, but It was way cooler because I was actually doing it.

We flew over greenleaf, and our house! It was so cool to see it from the air. Got tons of pics. The flight was about 40 minutes(10 minutes over the time expected), and was exciting. I guess I’ve actually flown now!

2:20 PM
We took a tour of MAF. Our pilot said he’d give us one. We were going to do it with another lady, but she was too busy, and he apparently wasn’t, so he gave us a tour MAF is kinda cool. They’ve got the actual plane the Nate Saint and them, flew. I’d already seen it though, so It wasn’t much new, but still cool!

2:50 PM
We headed off from MAF. We stopped at a couple places, but Mary forgot her wallet, so we didn’t buy much. Used up all of my cash though! We headed home though, after a while.

And that’s the most part of the day.

Here’s all the pics

Zeke

Caleb - The Soldier

Me in my duds. Sorry it’s so blurry, I didn’t smile for any of the pictures of me :\

One of the tables. I found out where my Bugle went!

Alice in her african dress.

NO ZEKE!!

Hi Aunt Pearl!

There’s Mary and the “Heart Balloon”

Tell you what Zeke, that hat fits you better than me!

They Brought their own treats.

Mom and Madison

One of the Posters Mom made

Soldier got tired.

They were having fun.

A Dancing circle. It got bigger, but this was the biggest snapshot I got!

My sisters

The Other Poster.

Mary and Lydia

Cute?

On to flying!

Here I am, in the plane.

Rachel

Heading to the run way

We’re off!

Nice view from up here!

How’s that for a dashboard??

That house almost looks familiar!

The Ice looked pretty neat from the sky.

There’s the street!(I know… ooooh!!! Ahhhh!)

Lake Lowell

Landed!

Comming in

They were waiting!

Picture time!

And the guys

A plane getting worked on(Not ours, don’t worry!!)

And there’s the plane.

“Wing Spar Bearing Machete Marks”

That’s all!

-Benjamin

Here’s the new arrival

(The Pictures are a tad bad quality. I think that must’ve happened when I resized them.)

Well, I was planning on updating yesterday, but for reasons I shall disclose, that wasn’t an option.

We were all jamming with our instruments yesterday and Martha came over right as we finished playing old dan tucker. She needed Isaac to check some stuff on her car so she left Levi inside. He was cute too! Which, is why I’m going to give you pictures!

This was the picture I took to get his attention!

Than He did this

Smile Levi!

Stiiiiilll Smilin’!

And the reason for not posting yesterday? Power outage! Fuse blew on the mains. Had to go to Ontario and get a couple new fuses.

Woke up that morning, about 7:30. We slept in the Fifth wheel because it was more comfortable than the tent. They’re fifth wheel actually sleep 8. It has the table area(which folds in to a bed), the hid-a-bed couch, two bunks(which Dan and I slept on), and the master bed(which Grandma and Grandpa sleep in). Grandma, Grandpa and I walked down to the Ashley Inn to have breakfast. The reason Dan didn’t come, was because he likes to sleep in, and so we figured we could get him some brekky once he woke up(which, we figured would be about when we got back!).

We got down there and had breakfast, which was: Waffles, Aumlets, Coffee, Juice and Peaches. It was pretty filling(I was full after one serving). We payed for our meal, then walked back. Grandpa had trouble with the walk because of the shortcut was took across the railroad tracks. It wasn’t too bad for me and Grandma, but Grandpa has no achilles tendons(different story), so he has trouble walking down the sloaps.

When we got back to “camp”, Dan was sitting in a chair looking like he just woke up, with a cup of coffee in hand. “Where were you?” He asked. We told him we’d been at the Ashley Inn to have breakfast. He looked like he wanted breakfast too, so I think at that point Grandma went in and cooked him up something.

After he was fully awake, me and him grabbed the wood we bought(having found out, you’re not really allowed to have fires!), and took it down to the shack where they sell it, and got the price redeemed and stuff. Then we went back to camp and, Grandma was on her Cell Phone talking to Rebecca. So, I went and took notes on the trip. Once she got off the phone, come to find out, Rebecca had the day off! So, she was gonna come up to Cascade.

Well, since she was comming up, might as well use the oportunity to have her bring some stuff right? So, I called her up, asked her to bring me up a change of clothes and the laptop(I know, can’t go four days without his computer)! The reason for the change of clothes was(obviously), that I needed another change. The reason for the laptop was, to take all the pictures off the camera so I could delete all of them! I was going to delete them before I left for Cascade, but it totally slipped my mind before I started taking pictures.

So, I got off the phone with her, and we embarked on a trip to go to a famed hot springs: Warm Springs.

After driving for a ways through forests up there, we got stopped at road construction(at the front of the lin too!). “Gonna be 30 minutes” Said the sign holder. Ahhh wonderful. “Is is ok if we get out and walk around?” Asked Grandma. “Yeah sure go ahead” Was the reply. So, we got out and stretched.

And we waited…. And waited… Waited some more…. Oh, fireman pilot car. Wait some more…. ahh finally!
We headed out from there, about 30 minutes after we got there! We followed their pilot car down.

We told the sign holder that we’d probably be comming back in 2 or three hours. She said the road construction would be clear by then pretty likely, so we’d have no wait time.

We drove around some, didn’t find warm springs, but what we did find, was Warm Lake! Whether warm Lake is really a warm lake, we had yet to find, but soon we would find sjust that. We found that there were two Lodges up there, and we were getting hungry for lunch, so, the names of the two lodges were: “Warm Lake Lodge”(how original) and “North Ridge Lodge”. So, we took a look at Warm Lake Lodge, but it didn’t seem like it had very good facilities. So, we tried North Ridge Lodge. It seemed to be alright, but then we went inside….

North Ridge Lodge was rather interesting. The had three Indians employed out front, building a structure we later found out was a wall for the horseshoe game there. Inside, it had low ceilings, and a sign that read “Nobody under 21 Allowed”. Uh oh, am I 21? Nooo. They let us eat outside though. We each had a sandwhich of sorts, and a drink of sorts. The guy outside talking was interesting…. He had a beer bottle in hand, and was glugging it and telling us stories. While we were out there, he was barbecuing was he called “Beer Chicken”. Now, let me explain what beer chicken is(he told us the recipe). First, you “pour out”(I doubt it was just “poured out”) two thirds a bottle of beer, and then you take a whole chicken, season it, and then stick the beer can(open end up) up the rear end of the chicken. Then you put it on the barbecue on low, for about 4 hours. And as the guy said, it’s “Juicy Juicy Juicy”. We didn’t stay around to try it though.

After Lunch, we went down to the water to(of course), see if it was warm! Well, it wasn’t any warmer than Cascade lake. They only named it warm lake because it’s close to warm springs. Then We walked around, and looked at what sorts of stuff they had. They had two flags hoisted at bay. The Jolly Roger, and an American Flag with 50 major brands of america instead of stars. They rent out cabins up there for not so cheap prices, but hey, I guess if you wanted to stay there, you could! Grandpa went and talked to the indians building the wall. They were having a little trouble building it, so Grandpa was trying to tell them how to do it.
Here’s a final shot of the lodge.

We left North Ridge Lodge, and headed back to camp. No road construction crews blocking our way anymore, so we didn’t have to wait a half hour again! It was nice having a clear cut way home. Once we got home, Rebecca was actually at camp. She said she’d been there for about a minute! So, we were only a little tiny bit late. Not bad timing though! I got the pictures off of the camera, and got online while I waited for them to copy(they had wireless there ). But I couldn’t be on long.

After we got back, we went with Dan back to Lake Cascade to snap a few final pictures before returning home the next day. Here’s what I got:

Then we came back, and listened to these Blue Grass Singers.

They were fairly good, just some guys who play. I listened for a while, then all of us went back to camp(except uncle Dan, he stayed). And then, after doing some stuff back at camp, I came back to see if they were still singing. And they were, but they finished in a couple minutes. Uncle Dan liked em, and They were fairly good, but they didn’t really play many songs that we knew.

So, after playing some solitaire, we all went to bed. The next day was really interesting, but I’ll reserve that, for the next post!
See ya’ll!

BenjieP

That night I tossed and turned some, not too bad once Dan stopped snoring.
Once I finally woke up, I had some coffee(yay!). It warmed me up nice. It was actually fairly cold that morning so I also put on the sweatshirt I brought. We Had Eggs, Toast and Bacon for Breakfast.

After Breakfast, some of us walked down to the Ashley Inn to see what it looked like.

It was really pretty. I thought so anyways. :D(didn’t get a lot of pics of it). Mom really liked it there, she played the piano for them.

They really liked Mom playing the piano. They told her the last time she went there(for a retreat), she could come and play anytime she wanted!

We came back from the Ashley Inn, and we walked down to the beach that’s at the resort, then I came back and put some shorts on so I could go Kayaking. I went out there, and James was Canoeing so he wanted to know if I’d like to get in to his canoe instead of just Kayak around. So, We both went ashore and I hopped in to his with a paddle.

After Canoeing around some, we played some Volleyball. Then Grandpa and Mary went to town to see about renting a Ski-doo/Water-ski. Rachel and Caleb went to town earlier as well, and got a package of waterballoons to play “Towel Volleyball”. We started playing that(after getting some towels), but then it was time for people to leave to go watch the video the rental place wanted people to watch before riding their equiptment.

So, I went back to camp, packed up some food and took a few notes on the trip. After I got done with that, we headed for Lake Cascade. Once we got there(only a couple minutes away), nobody from our group was there, So what do you think we did? We waited!

Finally after a few minutes, they arrived, and so did the delivery guy with the Ski-doo! It was pretty fun! They said that only licensed drivers could drive by themselves, but none-licensed could drive if a driver rode behind them, and keps the little wrist strap on! So, That was pretty cool! I drove like 4 times. The last time I drove, it was with Caleb behind me, and we went around and made big waves, then hit em and jumped! That was cool.

We aired up a rubber raft to float around on, but I think the ski-doo was the main atraction. At first we didn’t have paddles for the thing, but somebody got em when they went and got Grandma from camp(she stayed behind at first). Isaac got thrown off the ski-doo a couple times. That scared Mom a lot! I think the second time he did it on purpose though.

Here’s all the pics of that….

After doing that, we went back to camp(rental guy came and picked up the ski-doo too - We told him that somebody fell off a couple of times… He said “That’s the best part isn’t it?”). Then we Played some volleyball again, and more “Towel Volleyball”. Then we had dinner(Barbecue). After dinner, Most of the people went home.

Rebecca didn’t get to be there for the day because she had to work that day. Once everybody that was going home had departed, all that was left was me, Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Dan. Big group compared to what we had!!

After everybody left, it was kinda breezy and the rain was sprinkling some, but Me and Dan decided to walk down to the river. It was one of those moments where you think “Everybody’s gone now…. Wonder how we’ll have fun now!”. After just walking around some, we came back to camp, and it started raining so we packed a bunch of stuff back up so it wouldn’t get wet. Then I brought the two decks of cards I brought, in to the fifth-wheel so that we could play cards later.

I went out to my tent after that, and took some notes on the trip. After I finished that, we played golf(card game) in the fifth wheel. Then Grandma and Grandpa went to bed, and Uncle Dan and I just played solitaire for a little while. Then we both went to bed. He snored that night too woke me up in the middle of the night!

And thus ends day two!

Alright, so, you probably all want to hear about the trip to Cascade now!

We left for Cascade on wednesday, at about 12 I think. I brought along a couple changes of clothes, my Bible, my Camera, my notebook and a few other things.
I also brought along a Patriots history of the United states, which made the trips full of reading time.

First stop on our trip, was The Maverick. We always stop at that Gas station, because they have good snacks for trips. I got an icecream, a candy bar, half a small pizza(mary got the other half) and a gatoraid.

On the trip up, about 5 minutes from weiser(where the maverick was located), we noticed something on the road! Looked like a tent! Wonder if it flew out of the back of the truck? Well, we made it to the maverick and checked the truck and, sure enough! It was gone! So, Mary and I went back and got it, and then drove on.

The rest of the group was still waiting for us at the Maverick, but we didn’t stop. They saw us though, so it was fine. We stopped at a Cenex station to get gas(we didn’t actually get any at the maverick, for this car anyways!), and got passed by the rest of the group. The Gas station was interesting because it had those old style pumps! Not many of those around anymore.

We got going from the station, and finally caught up to the caravan. We passed through a town… I think it was Cambridge. And Mary saw a sign that said “Grapes $1 lb” So she said she had to stop! So, we stopped and got the grapes. She also got a couple poweraids! I’d already drank down my gatoraid too.

The group ahead evidently didn’t know what happened to us so, when we got up the road, we were a bit surprised to see them pulled off in a pull-off! We talked a little, gave them some grapes, and Grandma gave us her cell phone for the ride up.

We got going, and then we made another stop! McCall! I beleive it was Payette Lake, but it may have been McCall lake. I’m not really sure. But we stopped there for a bathroom break. Grandma and Grandpa went ahead though, and called and said they stopped at Burger Barn(*Den really.). So, we headed out, after getting a couple pics…

And then, from there, we headed over to Burger Den, and had lunch. From there it was pretty straight driving. We got to Cascade, Mary and I didn’t see the sign for the resort, but called Grandma and Grandpa and they told us to turn around and look for a sign that said “waters Edge” So, we turned around, and found it! At last, we arrived at Waters Edge.

I looked around a little and headed in to the office to see what they were doing. Just registering there and stuff like that. Then a few of us played a little tad bit of volleball(they had a net and sand there). And then we all headed up to our campground to set up camp.

The Tent set up was fairly easy, and so was the fifth wheel, but Unfortunately, there was a sewer spill when Grandpa attempted at hooking it up at the resort! Whew that stank! Finally got it hooked up though, and spread ash on the ground to stop the scent.

Then we went back and tried out the Kayaks. They were pretty fun! Though, at the resort, there was just a little area to Kayak in. Too bad! They had a potluck down there(they do it every wednesday night), so we went to that(brought chips and salsa, and hot dogs.), and then played some Volleyball, and then Kayaked some more! Then there was this nine year old Japanese kid who had his water gun, and decided to start a water fight with me in my Kayak! RETREAT!! Was about my most used word. What chance do I have against a squirt gun??

Ok, after that, Anna and Caleb actually arrived at the resort! I didn’t expect them until Friday, but I guess they decided today was the day!

Isaac found this rock that they had in the yard there, and he sat in it a proclaimed “It’s God’s Sun chair!”. Surprisingly, it really was about like a sun chair.

Then some of us went swimming at the river place, and it was pretty fun. I haven’t gone swimming all summer so it was nice! You could about walk across half of it, so I did that, then swam across the rest of the way. It wasn’t too bad, but I was tuckered!

After that, we went back to camp and actually got to do a camp fire!

It was in a contained dealie, but still nice.

We roasted Marshmallows and made smores! I attempted at toasting a smore, but it didn’t work. We sang some songs that night around the camp fire, and told stories. Then I went to bed at about 10:30, everybody was up pretty late. And I slept in the tent, and I’m not used to sleeping on the ground, so I had a hard time(haha) getting to sleep! Uncle Dan Snores too!

And thus, ends the yammerings about day one in Cascade! Enjoy! Post to come for day two!

Or should I say here and back again?

Micah, Luke and their friend Genna pulled in yesterday early morning for a visit over the weekend. It was pretty fun, getting to see Micah again and all. Luke’s staying home for a while now. Yesterday, we played Dominoes with Grandma and Grandpa, and what do you think we’d eat for dinner but pizza? well. Nothing. We had pop of course, but that doesn’t count as eat! Well, unless you count cardboard that is(*snickers*).

I stalemated Isaac at chess last night. I would have won too if I hadn’t been so careless. I had a rook and a queen and all that was left of him was… a king.

Micah and Genna left this afternoon, because Micah has a meeting in the morning. It was a nice visit…. while it lasted!

Now I’ll post a few random pictures

Bethany Blows out her candles

A couple of Rachels presents on Bethany


[EDIT] Images are now openable!